421 Tasting Notes
Thank you LiberTEAS for this sample too. First impression on opening the bag…holy blueberries! As it was steeping folks stopped in my office to ask what I was making this time. :) Apparently the blueberry smell carried in the building. The taste? Pretty amazing. I’m loving the mix of blueberry and green tea I think I’m getting here. Pretty refreshing on this chilly and rainy afternoon.
I am sadly still not getting the chocolate flavor in this tea :(! I’m tempted to doctor it with a chocolate bar piece. Don;t get me wrong it’s still good tea, but I was hoping for more chocolate goodness. Will try a re-steep once this cup is done….
Preparation
This smells interesting in the tin (I bought the sample set). I couldn’t tell what it smells like in the little perfect tea maker I have it steeping in. In my cup I get a hint of vanilla, the rest is all earl grey. Which isn’t bad, but I had hopped for more of a vanilla creme flavor as was advertised in the name on the tin. Still yummy! This is also the third earl grey (I think) in my quest to like this type of tea.
Preparation
Apparently I do like this one as I’ve almost finished the cup in record time! Going to try the Chocolate one again. Suggestions for really getting the chocolate flavor from it?
I absolutely love the chocolate one. Not sure why you are not getting enough chocolate flavor. I haven’t tried the others though but I may have to in the future. I steeped the chocolate one at 208 for 4mins. Nothing special
I can send you some samples….I have the sample set. Let me know!
If you have some to spare I would love to try some. Thank you so much. :-)
Will send out some goodies to you tomorrow! :)
Thanks I appreciate it. :-)
Threw a few ice cubes in this this morning so I could chug it down before I headed out the door. Normally I don’t chug down my tea, but I thought I had more time…not the case and my traveler mug was at work. Still very yummy and yes it hit the spot this morning. Will treat it better tomorrow morning. :)
I want to thank LiberTEAS for sending me this sample too. I’ve only had one cup and I have to say this was not a favorite. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it, but maybe I need to give it another shot (when home and NOT at work). I could really taste the matcha in this particular tea and I am a fan of the matcha. I just wasn’t getting much else as others had mentioned. So I will try it again – won’t rate until I do.
I’ve never been to Seattle, but after having a cup of this before work (thanks to LiberTEAS) I felt like I was there. It was just the boost I needed to get my day started on a Monday. It tasted a bit malty which is becoming a new favorite flavor in morning teas for me. This tea was also VERY smooth and bold. I could have easily had another cup, but I had to head off to work. I really need to make an order when I’m out. This really needs to be a staple in my tea cabinet!
Preparation
Enjoyed a cup this afternoon at lunch. Thankfully I was smart enough to ask for a cup of boiling water or else I would have “enjoyed” Lipton tea. I was however, smart enough to bring my own tea with me. I enjoyed this and had the attention of all the other tea drinkers who ended up with Lipton.
This served to calm me as I was in a bit of a mood over the events of the day.. So I pretty much drank this one down as quickly as I could. It did the trick, I was a bit more relaxed for the rest of the afternoon – always nice when a tea can do that for you.
It is important to note there is no way I can afford this tea. It would also lead to divorce between the Mr. and I in a heartbeat and at $25 per 2oz you may see why. So this is one of those teas I purchase by the cup when I visit my local Teavana. Of course the young man behind the counter tried his darndest to get me to buy a pound of it. It wasn’t happening.
I had this iced. I’d never had it before so I went with the young man’s suggestion of prep including sweetener or no sweetener. Thankfully he went with no sweetener. I must admit it was a supper smooth Oolong that I truly enjoyed. It hit the spot after a truly rotten day spent at an event I would have loved to pass on (long story there). I would get this again, but I wouldn’t buy it to make at home….not for that price….unless of course the Mr. ok’d it.
Preparation
I totally understand not wanting to buy a bunch of it, being so expensive, but grabbing a cup to go at 6 bucks is so steep it’s almost worth it.
Wow my cup did not cost $6, I think it was more like $4…
Might be american pricing then? It’s like 4.99 or 5.99 or something for a cup of rare tea.
Where I live, in the midwestern U.S. it’s 4.99! $5.35 with tax around here. I do think it’s funny that so many people have NO problem paying $5 for a cup of fancy coffee, but when I (on the rare occasion) pay $5 for a cup of tea I get shit for it! The prices here go 2.99-3.99-4.99. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a $3 cup though most of them are in the $5 category! I think it would be way more worth it if Teavanas had a seating area, and would resteep your leaves for you once you pay for the cup. My local tea shop does that, although they don’t really advertise it. Come to think of it, some of the employees at the Teavana here would probably resteep for me. I’m just never at the mall long enough to bother with it.
I do try to stay away from buying cups of tea at Teavana. They purposely make them expensive because they would rather have you buy tons of it without trying it than make a measly $4 on a cup of tea! This especially applies to new customers who have only tried the teas in the samples that are super sweetened and made really, really strong! I would much rather put that $5 towards the cost of 2 oz. of tea. And in the holiday season I’m pretty sure they don’t even let you get just a cup of tea? So annoying for loyal customers who do decide they want to try before they buy!
There’s another reason why they don’t rotate their samples. Most places rotate their samples on a daily basis! Not Teavana! God forbid you sample all the teas without first paying a ridiculous sum of money. And they rarely do samples that aren’t a blend because they want you to buy both. I don’t know about you guys, but if I could sample unsweetened teas every day I would be there way more often and probably buy way more!!
Wow this comment was supposed to be one sentence, sorry… lol This is what happens when I’m half asleep!
No problem! I agree with many of your points…like offering different samples not pumped full of sweetener! Yes, if I’m spending maybe $5 on a tea I should have the option of a resteep, but they don’t have seating. I try not to go in anymore because i just get annoyed. I used to shop there when two sales associates still worked there who were all about customer service and not at all pushy.
They have pricing for single beverages that are high due to the fact that they are not a tea bar. They want to provide customers the opportunity to purchase a cup to see if they like it before they commit to buying the tea. It’s expensive because of it were only a couple dollars more people would buy it there instead of purchasing the loose leaf, and that is not Teavana’s agenda.
FYI: I’ve gotten 12 steepings from monkey picked oolong
Note: Teavana has rights to first crop of all the highest quality tea farms, therefore they provide the highest quality tea. This is why you can get more steepings from this oolong than you could from other loose leaf tea stores.
Tart tea central! Don’t get me wrong…I like it, but it sure is tart. I think this one would be best iced and mixed up with perhaps Teavana’s Wild Orange Blossom tea…will have to try that out later tonight!
Preparation
This one smells really sweet as it steeps. There is a goldish color to the liquid. I can smell the papaya and really want to just eat it out of the cup. The taste is very smooth with a little tang to it. There’s a lot going on, at least it seems there is but all of it is really yummy. So glad I opted to get some!
